bulletin of accomplishments - UB Graduate School of Education ...

Bruce Johnstone (ELP faculty) has accepted the designation of Distinguished Scholar Leader withinthe Fulbright Program’s New Century Scholars Program. This program brings together 30outstanding scholars and professionals each year to collaborate on a topic of global significance.Johnstone will lead the 2007/2008 cohort as they examine three themes related to the central topicof access and equity in higher education (www.cies.org/ncs). Johnstone will also receive theCelebration of Life Award from Gilda’s Club of Western New York in May 2006. The award ispresented to an extraordinary person living with cancer, or who lived with cancer, whose life hasbeen an inspiration to others through his or her strength of character, conviction, and fortitude.Denise Krallman (M.A., 1993, CSEP) has been appointed director of institutional research atMiami University, Ohio.Christine Kroll (GSE Dean’s Office) was elected the vice president of the KIPP (Knowledge isPower Program) Sankofa Public Charter School (www.kippsankofa.org). The school, located in theCentral Park area of Buffalo, is a part of the national KIPP network of free open-enrollment collegepreparatorypublic schools in under-resourced communities (www.kipp.org). Locally, the KIPPSankofa school mission is to provide educationally underserved students with the knowledge, skills,and character needed to succeed in top quality high schools, colleges, and the competitive worldbeyond. Kroll will serve a two-year term.LAI faculty, students, and staff were honored at the annual LAI Recognition Banquet in April 2006.Fenice Boyd received the Distinguished Faculty Award; Diane Truscott (Ph.D., 1991),Distinguished Alumni Award; Lynn Shanahan (faculty), Best Teacher-Educator Award; NancyBailey (doctoral student), Promising Scholar Award; and Jason Otto (master’s student), PromisingTeacher Award.David Lazerson (Ph.D., 1986, LAI) reports that the cable channel Showtime has made a movieabout him and his racial harmony group, Project CURE. The group was formed shortly after therace riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn during the 1990s. The movie, “Crown Heights,” stars HowieMandel as Lazerson, and was recently released in video stores. “Crown Heights” is based onLazerson’s 2004 book, Sharing Turf: Race Relations After the Crown Heights Riots (BalladProductions). Lazerson also received a $10,000 grant in March 2006 from Arts in Education to useblack light theater to enhance instruction for students with profound special needs. Previously, fromFebruary 2005 to January 2006, Lazerson received five grants totaling $22,500 to use the arts toimprove educational experiences for senior citizens and students with special needs.Jennifer Livingston (Ph.D., 2000, CSEP), a research scientist at UB’s Research Institute onAddictions (RIA), received a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (in September 2005)for $531,904 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The grant provides fiveyears of support for mentored training, advanced coursework, and data collection in the field ofadolescent substance use and sexual risk behavior. The goals of this study are to: (a) identify thepredictors of adolescent alcohol use and sexual behavior; (b) examine the relationship betweeninitiation of risk behavior and the experience of negative sexual outcomes; and (c) gain anunderstanding of the contexts in which adolescents initiate risk behavior and experience sexualvictimization. Livingston’s mentors on this project are Maria Testa, RIA, and Michael Windle,University of Alabama at Birmingham.Wen Ma (Ph.D., 2004, LAI) received Honorable Mention Outstanding Dissertation Award for apaper based on his dissertation research, “Participatory Dialogue and Participatory Learning in aDiscussion-Based Graduate Seminar,” at the 2005 National Reading Conference Annual Meeting inMiami, FL.20